Effective Mechanical Seal for Pump Applications at Onshore Gas Terminal

One of the purposes of Onshore Gas Terminal (OGT) was to export gas and condensate
to the respective customers. Condensate Transfer Pumps (CTP) was used to transport
condensate to the condensate metering system before being exported.
The problem that usually occurred in this operation was CTP pumps failure. The CTP
pump failure was due to leaking problem that was caused by the mechanical seal failure.
The failures gave bad effects on the environment issues related with the product leakage
and economic issues due to product waste and disruption to condensate export
operations.
There were two objectives of this study. The first objective was to examine the
properties of materials that could be used for mechanical seals. The second objective
was to determine the most effective material to be used for mechanical seals that would
reduce the occurrence of failure in CTP pumps.
The scope of study would focus on the properties of the mechanical seal to eliminate and
prevent leak. Properties such as hardness, chemical compatibility, wear resistance and
compressive strength to failure were determined. The materials were tested in the lab.
Among the tests were Rockwell hardness testing, corrosion testing, wear resistance
testing and compression to failure testing. The materials used were carbon, tungsten
carbide and silicon carbide. The results were analyzed and deductions were made.
The study concluded that the most effective material that could be used for mechanical
seal was Silicon Carbide because it had the highest strength, the highest resistance to
corrosion, the highest wear resistance, and high compressive strength to failure.